Friday, 14 December 2007

Here it is, I have finally captured a sing-a-long on my phone camera...this to me is what playing that out of tune grand piano is all about!! and why I love playing on it!!

Sadly, my phone battery went on me so you only get about 3 minutes to watch but, to be honest that is all that you need...when the phone clicked off I was praying that it managed to capture the video and save what little it had recorded! thankfully it did...YAAAAAAAAAAY!

You are gonna love this, never mind the quality of the sound or the quality of the video just see what happens when you can walk into a room full of strangers, sit down and play a few things, pull a crowd around the piano and then...wham!! they are all singing at the tops of their voices.

I get a complete and utterly amazing feeling inside that I cannot describe properly but, trust me it is probably more fun for me than them!

This is a chance for you to hear how I have improved in my playing from recording to recording and a chance for you to read some of Mikes (aka pianomagic) comments on my pieces.

This to me is the absolute value of pianomagic!! not only is it a pretty cool way to learn to play the piano (IMHO) but, you have Mike to listen to your music and help you through your struggles with some amazing feedback and guidance (just by listening to your recordings!)

First one

This was posted 1st July 2004 (I joined October 2003 so, this is...erm...around 9 months in!)

Tuesday, 11 December 2007

As some of you may know already I am a DJ and at Xmas time I have a run of around 20 gigs at a Medieval Banquet Night.

At this particular hotel complex there is a lobby piano (a very out of tune Yamaha grand piano) that I like to play just for fun!

Late at night after the disco has finished it can get quite "hair raising" (people assume that I am the regular pianist - they want sing-a-longs and request loads of songs too!!!)

It's a little like throwing yourself in at the deep end! but this is my 4th year playing on it and it doesn't bother me at all anymore.

Sorry about the quality of this video, its the best that the secondary camera on my mobile phone can do. This was taken before the festivities of the night so there is no singing a long as they are not drunk enough yet!

maybe the next one I'll take late at night

So here it is...I've edited it down to just under 10 minutes...but, have left in "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" which I hadn't played for a year and you may notice I got a little stuck remembering how it went...but, the key is to keep going and make the same mistake again if you can so it seems to anyone listening like a variation (if you are lucky)

Have a wonderful Xmas everyone (especially to the members of my 'fan club')

Lee

Edit to add:

Someone has mentioned to me the video quality and all the background noise!...until I get a phone upgrade its the best I can do for video quality but, with regard to the noise? this is what I said about it:-"yes that background noise huh?..however, that's what I wanted y'all to hear...'cause that is exactly what it is like...the room is just chock full of excitement and expectation with regard to the night ahead at their office Xmas parties. I was hoping you would get a sense of it? Heck, you can hardly hear the dang piano! (in other words one can get away with murder at this joint...which is kinda kool)

later on in 'sing-a-long territory' I have to really play it LOUD!!to get it going"

Its been a great venue for me in many ways, a baptism of fire in others!! but on the whole its been a blast!

Please feel free to pass a comment if you like or don't like the piano sound, I'm pretty happy with it and the best thing is it saves me time converting the midi files (that I have recorded at home on my Yamaha CLP170) through the motif rack every time :)

Saturday, 1 December 2007

Okay, I have Mikes permission to show this video in my blog :) so here goes...

------------------------------------------------------------------------DISCLAIMER: This video is rated as a **12a** due to some *really, really bad singing!!* and it is strongly recommended that children of a sensitive nature or household pets be kept in another room whilst watching!!------------------------------------------------------------------------However, this video gives hope to those of us (out there) that think because they can't sing, they can't play a piano and also disproves Buffys theory that anyone can sing. For some of you (hopefully) the singing should make you laugh.

This is a video I made specifically for Elssa a pianomagic member but, if anyone wants to start improvising then, this may be of some help??